The Wingate men and women are out front after day one of the SCAD Invitational.
Wingate Press Release
Savannah, Ga.----The nationally-ranked Wingate University men's and women's swimming teams are in first place after the first day of the Savannah College of Art and Design Invitational Thursday night at the Chatham County Aquatic Center. The Bulldog women's team won four events, including both Thursday relays. The Wingate men won two competitions, including the session-ending 800 Freestyle Relay.
#9 Wingate women's recap
Wingate won two-of-two relays with senior Academic All-America Vika Arkhipova (Seversk, Russia) playing a role in both. The Bulldogs started the evening with a gold-medal performance in the 200 Medley Relay (1:43.65). Arkhipova swam the backstroke leg, followed by classmates Jessika Weiss (Macon, Ga.) and Caitlin Coughlin (Cochranville, Pa.). Sophomore Hanna Van Horen (Hofstade, Belgium) brought things home on the anchor leg.
The Bulldogs completed the day by touching first in the 800 Freestyle Relay with a time of 7:28.19. Arkhipova swan the second leg. She was joined by junior Alex Divelbiss (Pueblo, Colo.), freshman Abby Kosic (West Chester, Pa.) and Van Horen.
Van Horen picked up Wingate's first individual victory Thursday, taking the 500 Freestyle crown with her time of 5:00.58. Freshman Mathilde Cros (Pont de L'arn, France) was third in the same event, thanks to her time of 5:03.82.
Divelbiss led 1-2-3 finish in the 200 Individual Medley with her triumphant time of 2:03.23. She was followed by Kosic (2:03.54) and graduate student Olga Kosheleva (Yekaterinburg, Russia) to complete the podium-filling performance. Sophomore Maria Madsen (Dragoer, Denmark) and Coughlin were second (24.03) and third (24.04), respectively, in the 50 Freestyle.
On the team leader board, Wingate tops the charts with 430 points. The remainder of the top five teams includes Emory (173), Brenau (92), SCAD Savannah (91) and Catawba (53). Twelve teams scored points during Thursday's first session.
#10 Wingate men's recap
Wingate senior Leif-Henning Klüver (Risum-Lindholm, Germany) won the 200 Individual Medley (1:50.47) and swam the anchor leg on the Bulldogs' triumphant 800 Freestyle Relay quartet (6:43.92). Klüver was joined in the relay by redshirt sophomore Lennart Queiss (Langen, Germany) and freshmen Niclas Geyer (Wünschendorf, Germany) and Ben Evans (Dover, England).
Evans was second in the 500 Freestyle (4:32.56), while senior Øystein Fjeldberg (Oslo, Norway) was third in the 200 Individual Medley (1:53.16). The Bulldogs placed second in the 200 Medley Relay (1:31.45), thanks to the efforts of sophomore Niklas Martin (Kempton, Germany), junior Robin Siegel (Friedberg, Germany), redshirt junior Sebastian Holmberg (Njutånger, Sweden) and senior team captain Mehdi Zeraidi (Brussels, Belgium).
Eleven men's teams scored points in Thursday night's opening session. Wingate is the top dog with 309.5 points. Keiser (Fla.) is second with 216 points. The remainder of the top five teams includes Thomas (140 points), SCAD Savannah (124) and Emory (114).
The three-day SCAD Invitational continues Friday with morning preliminaries and evening finals. The Bulldog women have eight SCAD Savannah Invitational titles, while the Wingate men have hoisted seven first-place trophies in the annual event.
